The PPA Tour’s 4th stop of the year kicked off today in Lakeville, Minnesota with men’s and women’s singles. There is no progression draw this week so players had to battle through the entire field to stamp their ticket to Championship Sunday. Let’s breakdown the action as there were high intensity matches from start to finish.
Men’s Singles: (1) Federico Staksrud vs (2) Connor Garnett
Federico Staksrud continued his singles dominance today as he didn’t drop a game in any of his matches. His biggest test was against his men’s doubles partner Pablo Tellez in the semifinal. Tellez was able to find his forehand early and put pressure on Staksrud but wasn’t able to secure a tight game 1 and that was all Federico needed as he ran away in game 2 to an 11-2 victory.
On the bottom half of the draw Connor Garnett didn’t have an easy day whatsoever as he was pushed to three games in every match played. He defeated Jack Sock in the quarterfinals and Christian Alshon in the semifinals to book his ticket to Sunday. Garnett will have to be firing on all cylinders if he wants to take down the red hot Federico Staksrud who is into his 4th straight final of the season.
Women’s Singles: (3) Salome Devidze vs (15) Parris Todd
The rematch between Salome Devidze and #1 seeded Catherine Parenteau lived up to the hype and then some. Styles make fights and these two play very different styles with Devidze opting to rip groundstrokes from the back of the court and Parenteau liking to move forward and put pressure on early. This was a back-and-forth slugfest of a semifinal that went Devidze’s way 14-12 in the 3rd game. Shoutout to both ladies for putting on a show for the fans.
Parris Todd lost to Lea Jansen in Mesa just a couple of weeks ago and revenge had to be on her mind today as they faced off in the round of 16. After grabbing game 1 Todd dropped game 2 11-3 and that seemed to have a carry-over effect into game 3 as she found herself down 9-1 before calling a timeout. Credit to Parris for not giving in and chipping away one point at a time as she completed one of the best comebacks of the young season. That win propelled her to two more wins and she’ll look to snag one more on Sunday vs Devidze to capture gold. Both players like to grind from the back of the court so it should be interesting to see if either player ventures forward more than normal.
On the Horizon
Mixed doubles kicks off tomorrow morning and expect Jack Sock and Catherine Parenteau to come out firing in a wide open draw. This could very well be their breakout tournament so make sure to tune in on PickleballTV and the PPA’s YouTube channel starting at 11 CT.
